Carriage for antiaircraft guns



Feb. 5, 1929. 1,700,902

Y. P. G. LE PRIEUR CARRIAGE FOR ANTIAIRCRAFT GUNS Filed D90- 5, 1927 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 uwevrm Feb. 5, 1929. 1,700,902

Y. P. G. LE PRIEUR CARRIAGE FOR ANTIAIRCRAFT GUNS Filed Dec 1927 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig.3

INK/PNTWK Feb. 5, 1929. 1,700,902

Y. P. G. LE PRIEUR CARRIAGE FOR ANTIAIRCRAFT GUNS Filed Dec. 1927 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Fig.7

PM... Feb. 5,1929.

PATENT OFFICE;

UNITED STATES YVES PAUL GASTON LE PBIEUB, OF PARIS, FRANCE, ASSIGNOR 'IO SOCIETE ANONYME LA PRECISION HODEBNE, OF PARIS, FRANCE, A COMPANY 01? FRANCE.

7 CARRIAGE FOBANTIAIRCRAFT GUNS.

Application lled December 5, 1927, Serial No. 237,945, and in France December 9, 1926.

In someof the known gun carriages, such as those adapted for antiaircraft machine guns, it happens that the parts controlling the horizontal and vertical laying out and the si hting glasses are disposed in a manner su ch as will make the gunners using these parts and glasses prevent the other gunners from loadin the gun.

In view 0 removing this drawback I dispose an arm which I will term hereinafter fictitious gun parallel to the gun by means of a parallel motion pivotally secured to the gun and to the rotating part of the gun carriage. This fictitious gun is always at a height corresponding to that of the head of the pointer who is seated on the rotating part of the carria so as not to hinder the gunner loading e gun and to allow the gun to be controlled easily both in the horizontal and vertical planes. The fictitious gun is provided with the sighting means such as a device for direct sighting or else a correcting device allowing the movement of the target duri the time of flight of the projectile to 26 be taken into account.

The fictitious gun may be disposed below or above the gun. In the first case, it may be disposed somewhat in front of the gun so as to give the pointer a seat in front of the gun trunnions in view of freeing the gun completely.

The term gun used by me is intended to cover either one or more machine guns. In the case of a plurality of machine guns the 85 latter are together in a cradle borne by the trunmons of the carria B way of example I have escribed hereinbe ow and shown on appended drawings two forms of execution of a gun carriage according to my invention.

Fi 1 is a side view of a simple carriage of w ich Fig. 2 is a plan view.

Fig. 3 is a side view of a multiple carriage.

Fig. 4 is a cross section taken at 90 with 46 reference to Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a plan view partly sectional.

Fig. 6 is a detail of the firing device as seen at 90 with reference to Fig. 4.

Figs. 7 and 8 are a side View and a plan view of the device actuating simultaneously the cocking levers of the machine guns.

The gun carriage (Figs. 1 and 2) is borne by a conical support 1 secured to a stationary platform 2. This carriage is constituted by so acomcalcarriageiprestingonthetopofthe support 1 through a ball or. a step bearing 4 and kept over the center of the said support through the rollers 5 and 6 moving in suitable paths provided in the top and bottom of the support. The carriage of the so called crinoline type is provided with arms 7 directed rearwards and hearing at their ends 8 the trunnionsof the machine gun 9. The carriage 3 is also provided towards its front with spindles 10 parallel to the axis of ale trunnions 8 and secured to a fictitious gun 11. The latter is connected with the machine gun 9 through the rods 12 the length of which is equal to the distance between the axes of 8 and 10 and pivotally secured to the gun at a point 13 the distance of which to the trunnions 8 is equal to the length of the fictitious gun 11. A parallel motion is thus constituted which may be deformed to suit the angular direction ven in the vertical plane to thergun and to t e fictitious gun.

e carriage 3 carries at its lower part a seat 14 with a back 15 disposed in a manner such that when the pointer is seated thereon, his head 16 is about at the height of the trimnions 10 of the fictitious gun. In this position the pointer may use the controlling wheel 17 for levelling which wheel acts through the shaft 18 ending with the worm 19 meshing with an annular toothed part borne by the support 1. The pointer may also use the wheel 21 for raising the gun, the said wheel acting through a shaft 22 and a worm 23 on a toothed wheel 24 secured to the trunnions 10 of the fictitious gun 11. The seat 14 has extensions 25 serving as foot rests the end of each of which is provided with a pedal 26, 27 of which one controls through a suitable device not shown the connection and disconnection of the two controllin handwheels and the other controls the firlng device of the gun.

The sighting device is home by the fictitious gun 11 and is disposed with reference thereto as required for correct firing. For instance as shown on Fi 2, the fictitious gun 11 may be constituted y a frame formed by two parallel rods 11, 11' over which a carriage 28 hearing the sighting glass29 may slide. The parts giving the levelling corrections and acting on the sighting glass 29 are preferably disposed on the other side of the gun. For instance, these parts may comprise a calculating plate 30 well known per se which acts on a sighting rod 31 sliding m a pivoting frame 31 whereby it is laced parallel to the direction to be given to t e glass. The movements of this rod 31 are followed by the glass 29 by means of suitable connections 32 between the pivoting frame 31" and a similar pivoting frame 29' to which the glass 29 is secured; asecond line of sight parallel to the first one and adapted to be used by the gunner loading the gun may be disposed on the pivotin frame 31, a second levelling handwheel being provided.

On Figure 3 and following, the guns 101, 101', 102 and 102' rest in a cradle 103 and are held from moving with reference to the cradle for instance through a common control not shown. The cradle rocks round the shafts 104 and 104 in bearings borne by the flasks 103 and 103 secured to the turret 106.

The setting of the gun as to elevation is provided by the helically cut pinion 111 of forged bronze, said pinion meshing with a toothed sector 112 of steel secured to the shaft 104 of the cradle. The pinion 111 meshes with a steel worm 113 to which is keyed the bevel pinion 114 meshing with the bevel pinion 115 borne by the shaft of the handwheel 116 controlling the elevation of the gun.

The turret 106 rests through the thrust bearing 119 on the pivot 117 secured to the basis 118, a ball bearing 121 being interposed moreover between 106 and 117. The bearings 119 and 121 are mounted on the pivot 117 and are held tightly through the nuts 122 and 123 each provided with a safety nut.

The pivot 117 is centered over and secured to the basis 118. The turret 106 is provided with the levelling and firing devices, with the gunners seat 124 and the ammunition box 125.

The levelling is controlled from the to of the directing column 126 b the handw eel 127 which controls throug the shaft 128 and the bevel pinions 130 and 131, the shaft 132 which actuates in its turn (Fig. 5) the shaft 133 actuating throu h an Oldham clutch the worm 135. The w ole of this control gear borne entirely through ball bearings is enclosed. Two ins ection doors are provided in front of the evel pinions.

The worm 135 meshes with a bronze toothed wheel 136 secured to the basis 118. The levelling is provided by the motion of the worm round this wheel.

The ointer sits in the seat 124 provided 4 with a ack riveted to a plate 137 provided with a shaft borne by the turret. The pointers feet may be disposed on foot rests 138 and 138 secured to the turret.

The gunner using the correcting device stands behind the ointers seat.

Near the right oot of the pointer is arranged (Fig. 3) the firing pedal 139 the movement of which is limited b a stop 140 secured in a support. The eda 139 is conneeted through a rod 141 with the lever 142 pivotally secured to a spindle 143 secured to the turret. A second rod 144 is pivotally secured to the lever 142 through one end and to the rack 145 through the other.

The rack 145 drives a sector the vertical axis 147 of which extends as far as the trunnions of the cradle (Figs. 3 and 4) and is provided with a projection 148 bearing on a lever 149 passing through the trunnion 104 of the cradle 103 and adapted to control the cam 151 connected with that part of the firing device which is borne by the cradle. This part shown on Figs. 4 and 5 comprises a rod 152 pivotally secured through one end to the cam 151 and through the other to a lever 153 to the spindle 154 of which is keyed a projection 155. The latter actuates a push rod 156, the end of which 157 is adapted to act on the firing device of the gun. There are as many projections 155 and rods 156 on the spindle 154 as there are individual guns whereby the latter may be fired simultaneously.

It may be of interest on the contrary to control the firing of only a group of machine guns through the pedal 139. In such a case two projections 155 only for instance are disposed on the spindle 154, which correspond to the guns 101 and 101. Another pedal controlled through the other foot, controls a transmission similar to that controlled by 139 and passing through the other trunnion 104 of the cradle.

It controls another spindle 154 inside the cradle to which are secured projections 155 acting on the push rods 156' for firing the two machine guns 102, 102. It should be noted that the simultaneously controlled machine guns are disposed symmetrically with reference to the middle of the cradle so as 'to ensure the equilibrium of the stresses due to the firing.

The ammunition box 125 is disposed on a platform 161 borne by the turret 106.

To the left of the cradle 103 is secured an arm 162. To the flask 105 is pivotally secured the end of an arm 163 connected through the rod 164 with the arm 162.. The distances between pivoting axes are exactly equal foreach two sets of axes whereby the arm 163 remains always arallel to the axis of the machine guns. T is arm 163 forms the fictitious gun.

The fictitious gun used for ointing may serve for drilling purposes. ore generally it is used for supporting the correcting device 165 which may be of the type described in my prior patent Appln. Ser. No. 106,703. Through such a device which I will not describe in detail the taking into account of the firing data causes the sighting glass 166 throu h which the pointer follows the target to e moved by a suitable angle. The correcting device may be moreover removed instantaneously.

In a certain number of machine guns such as the Hotchkiss guns for which the III above described of the machine gun. As the sides of the guns may be reached only with difliculty in the case of a multi-gun carriage, I have devised the automatic arrangement shown on Fi 7 and 8.

fie lever 163 of each machine gun such as the 101 is secured to a rack 166 meshing wit the toothed sector 167 keyed to the shaft 168 home by 'the gun cradle perpendicularly to the guns. This shaft bears a bevel pinion 168 m with a bevel pinion 171 keyed to the crank 172 the axis of which is borne by a lug 173 secured to the cradle. The shaft 168 bears a sector such as 167 for each machine gun. It is thus apparent that when the crank 172 is rotated, all the levers are simultaneously cocked.

mtipema'eguncomp" a carriage adapted to rotate round a vertical axis, a cradle pivoting round a horizontal axis with reference thereto, a series of parallel machine borne by said cradle, a sight bar pivo y secured to a point of the rotatable carriage underneath and in front of the pivoting axis of the cradle, means for keeping the sight bar and the guns in parallelism, means for elevatiag and for traimn' gthe both home by erotatable carriage sligfitly in front of and underneath the guns borne by the rotatable carriage close to the last mentioned means.

2. In a rotatable gun carriage as claimed in claim 1 a device comprising a push rod through and coaxial with a trunniondof til:d cradle, and ada tad to fire th e gunsan a al in nto tepointers seat and controlling the push rod.

3. In a rotatable gun carriage as claimed in claim 1 a firing device comprising a pedal in froht of the pointers seat, a rod arrangement controlled thereby, a rack adapted to be actuated by said arrangement, a spindle, a sector borne by same and engaging a rack, a projection borne by said spindle near a trunnion of the cradle, a push rod passin through and coaxial with said trunnion and adapted to be moved by said rojection, a cam controlled by the push rod a horizontal rod borne by the cradle, means connecting the cam with the horizontal rod, and arms secured to the horizontal rod and adapted to fire the guns.

4. In a rotatable gun carriage as claimed in claim 1 a firing device comprising two push rods each pasing through and coaxial with a trunnion of the cradle and each adapted to fire part of the guns and two pedals in front of the pointers seat and controlling respectively the push rods.

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my HUI ' rm nun. GASTON u-: PRIEUR.

carriages are specially the pivot of the sight bar, and means for adapted, the gun must be cocked each time firing firing is resumed through a lever to the side 

